There’s a café I’m known to frequent, and on the bathroom wall is scrawled the following line, credited to Tom Robins.

“Just more suckers betting their share of the present on the future, banking every misery on a happy ending”

Chris Pratt (played by one of my very favorite actors, Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is just such a gambling sucker, and he works at a bank so the line above is doubly appropriate. We find him in the beginning of the film struggling with the lot he’s been dealt in life. He meets with his social worker and over the course of a terse conversation his clumsy and aggressive sexual advances are rejected. Later at a bar he awkwardly repeats a pick up line he over heard and hilariously falls flat on his face by getting the inflection wrong.

Chris has got a whole variety of problems that go far beyond being bad at jokes. Due to brain damage from a car accident he has problems “sequencing” which means if he tries to tell a story then the events will get all out of order. It doesn’t sound like that big a deal but believe me it all sorts of fucks up his life; and he definitely can’t make pasta for dinner or even open up the tin can for the tomato sauce.

At night he works as a janitor at what appears to be his town’s only bank and he passes his days attending support groups and making lists of things he has trouble remembering. He lives with his middle aged blind roommate, played by Jeff Daniels in a great supporting performance. They’re an odd couple but their friendship is endearing, they share a Steinbeck-esque dream of starting a restaurant together.

This is not the life that Chris Pratt envisioned for himself. Once upon a time before a car crash this guy was one of those on top of the world types. He was some kind of big shot athlete in high school; he’s from a family with money.

The success of this film is contigent on the audience empathizing with Chris. He’s one of those sensitive brooding characters that are popular these days but Levitt makes it clear that inside he’d rather be boozing and chasing girls. He’s been cast in role he’s not at all comfortable in (the character not the actor) and that makes Chris Pratt a little more interesting than your average Donnie Darko knock off. Inside he knows that could’ve been him once, saying cool thing to pretty girls and going home with them.

One day he meets a new friend at the bar. His name’s Gary, he’s played by Matthew Goode who I guess is some kind of teen heart throb type but in spite of that he’s quite good here. He’s confident and just a little threatening, he’s probably a lot like the guy Chris used to be.
Gary’s good with women, he says all the right and seems to be looking out for Chris. He’s also got a very stupid idea to rob the bank where Chris works and slowly but surely he wins Chris over to the idea. He’s able to win Chris not with promises of money but by subtly reminding Chris of all he’s lost and feeding off the resentment he’s built up. He flashes women and friends, money and clothes, he reminds of the way things used to be. Chris sees the way people respond to Gary and he remembers what it’s like to be that guy. He compares that to the way to the way people respond to him now, not just strangers but family members and former friend who have plenty for room in their hearts for him as long as he’s asking for pity. Gary’s offer suggest not so much that Chris’ old life can be regained but that he should be reimbursed for what’s rightfully his. It’s not long before Chris is trading the life he’s built for the life promised to him.

The dilemma here is an interesting one because it reminds us of basic and uncomfortable truths. That none of us in this life are given any guarantees, that all of us, to various extents are victims of fate in some way or another. And that there are mistakes made in every life that can never be undone.

By the final act The Lookout turns into a heist gone wrong thriller. I’ve heard it complained that these scenes are “too Hollywood” but I’m not sure exactly what that means. It does follow in the tradition of many Hollywood movies, movies like Blood Simple, Blue Velvet or The French Connection. If you think that’s a bad thing then I don’t get where you’re coming from, this is exactly the type of thriller I enjoy; where the characters find themselves trapped in some sort of stand-off, forced not to outshoot each other but to out strategize each other.
The complaint could be made that the film relies too much on clunky exposition, especially at the end. It’s true, whenever the movie relies on dialogue to deliver exposition it lands with a thud. That goes especially for an embarrassing scene towards the end but that’s nitpicking. The strength of the film isn’t in its plotting but in its characters and acting; and in it’s situation of course. This isn’t a heist movie, it’s a movie a guy accidentally wakes up in the wrong life. Incidentally there happens to be a heist.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is at least tied with Ryan Gosling as the best young actor staring in movies today. Personally I favor Levitt because he’s more adept at picking scripts. Three films in a row he’s managed to pick roles playing characters that are strange and memorable but also familiar and relatable. There are moments in The Lookout where Levitt lets the old Chris peak out at us from behind a wall of confusion and heart break and those haunting moments are the life blood of the film.

Bonus: check out Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s devestatingly charming website where he posts random thoughts and short films he makes.

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